title: Prioritized Detection of Personally Familiar Faces.
abstract: We investigated whether personally familiar faces are preferentially processed in conditions of reduced attentional resources and in the absence of conscious awareness. In the first experiment, we used Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) to test the susceptibility of familiar faces and faces of strangers to the attentional blink. In the second experiment, we used continuous flash interocular suppression to render stimuli invisible and measured face detection time for personally familiar faces as compared to faces of strangers. In both experiments we found an advantage for detection of personally familiar faces as compared to faces of strangers. Our data suggest that the identity of faces is processed with reduced attentional resources and even in the absence of awareness. Our results show that this facilitated processing of familiar faces cannot be attributed to detection of low-level visual features and that a learned unique configuration of facial features can influence preconscious perceptual processing.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Specialistica, Diagnostica e Sperimentale, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy ; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America.
authors.forename: Maria Ida
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Gobbini
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Gors
authors.forename: Yaroslav O
authors.initials: YO
authors.lastname: Halchenko
authors.forename: Courtney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: J Swaroop
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Guntupalli
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cipolli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors